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Ketchup-inspired luggage. Soap based on the characters from Stranger Things. A hot sauce energy drink. These are just a few of the brand collaborations that weve seen in 2025and its safe to say that alls not well in the world of brand partnerships. A few years ago, the art of the brand collab most often involved bringing together two brands that already had overlapping design styles, fanbases, or product categories. Recall partnerships like Nike and Apples successful 2016 Series 2 Watch launch, for example; or Dolce & Gabbanas elevated designs for Smeg in 2019; or even Legos 2020 collection with Ikea. All of these pairings make some measure of intuitive sense. But over the past couple of years, something has clearly changed. As the online attention economy becomes increasingly saturated through the daily deluge of marketing content on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, its becoming more and more difficult for brand collabs to make a splash and reach widespread audiences the way they mightve in years past. So, brands have started adopting a new tack: rather than selecting partners that make obvious sense within their brand world, theyre opting for collabs with the most shock value possible. In an interview with Fast Company on the topic back in September, Grace Murray Vazquez, executive vice president of strategy at the influencer marketing company Fohr, explained the strategy: Its less about getting audiences to try the collaboration, and more about reminding them to reach for the original thing. Its ultimately not just bizarre; it is like a calculated unexpectedness. The end result is that, nowadays, lots of brand partnerships seem more like they were randomly selected out of a hat rather than carefully considered. Here are a few of the weirdest examples of this late-stage capitalist phenomenon that weve seen in 2025. [Image: 5 Hour Energy] 5-hour Energy x Taco Johns Nothing says gut health quite like energy drinks and hot sauce. Thats why, to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, 5-hour Energy linked up with the Mexican fast-food joint Taco Johns on an “energized” hot sauce and a spicy energy drink. This one would be perfect to try out right before a long runwhat could go wrong? [Photo: Heinz] Heinz x Herschel Elsewhere in the realm of wacky food brand collabs, Heinz tapped the travel supply company Herschel to turn its iconic ketchup into a carry-on and roller bag. Both pieces included a tear here ketchup visual, an interior print featuring Heinz ketchup packets, and a custom removable belt and luggage tag in the shape of, you guessed it, a Heinz packet. Apparently, the collab was inspired by the quarter of Gen Z and millennials who pack their own condiments when dining on-the-gobut, to be honest, if you pack single-serve ketchup packets in your luggage, we cant trust you. [Photo: Chipotle] Beis x Chipotle If you went to the airport without repping your favorite food brand this year, did you even travel? Heinz and Chipotle would like to say no. In December, Chipotle got an up-market boost through an 11-piece capsule collection with the luxe travel brand Beis. The lunch included an $128 burrito-inspired duffle bag; a $378 silver roller bag; and a $48 burrito sling designed to carry a Chipotle burrito and insulated to keep it warm. Surely no one will mind when you dig into a hearty burrito on the plane, as long as it comes in a chic wrapping device. [Photo: P&G] Wicked x Swiffer Frankly, it would be gross negligence to write a list of weird brand collabs from 2025 without mentioning Wicked: For Good. The duologys first installment racked up more than 400 brand partnerships and integrationslikely more than any film, everand while an official number hasnt been revealed for the second film, its almost certainly also in the hundreds. There are a lot of weird collabs to choose from this year, but one of the strangest has to be Wicked: For Goods product launch with Swiffer, which makes the bold assumption that if fans liked Glinda and Elphabas singing, theyd probably love to clean the floors with mops inspired by them, too. Stranger Things x Dr. Squatch Speaking of cleaning, are you keeping up with Stranger Things season 5? If so, the soap company Dr. Squatch is betting that youre probably wondering when you can lather up in the shower with a product inspired by its iconic charactersand its bravely stepping in to meet that need. The brand recently launched four soaps based on the show, with innovative scents like Vecnas Curse (featuring notes of juniper and blood orange) and “Squack Signal (featuring notes of iced lavender and cherry soda, and also a picture of Steves face, because, duh).
Category:
E-Commerce
My bus rolls into Port Authority. I’ve got 10 minutes to get across town for my first meeting. I sprint down the escalator, run through droves of people, and arrive at a subway turnstile. I swipe my MetroCard through the magnetic reader, step forwardonly to get crotch-checked by a locked metal bar and flipped the finger by a screen that displays PLEASE SWIPE AGAIN. I give it another swipe. INSUFFICIENT FARE. To refill my MetroCard, I power walk toward the kiosk. It refuses to read my credit card. I swipe a few more times. Nothing. I sift through my back pocket, discover a crumpled ten-dollar bill, and slide it into the machine. It won’t accept my cash. I waffle-iron the bill flat with my hands and feed it back in. [Photo: Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News/Getty Images] The kiosk spits out my refilled MetroCard. Baked into its awful blue and yellow design is this same awful experience, on repeat. The MetroCard has been a defining artifact of New York City’s subway system for more than three decades. In that time, some might argue, it has become an icon of design. I respectfully disagree. Design is inextricable from experience. The MetroCards design is as outdated as its technology. Fortunately, after years of poor MetroCard experiences like mine, the MTA has made its final update to the swiping technology. In 1993, the MetroCard was introduced as a replacement for subway tokens. It existed for decades as New Yorkers dominant method for accessing the subway. But in 2019, the MTA announced they were introducing a tap-and-go system called OMNY. That year, they installed it on Staten Island buses and across 16 subways as part of a pilot program. Over the next four years, they installed OMNY machines throughout all five boroughs. Manhattan and Brooklyn were early adopters. By November 2024, 60% of riders were using OMNY, according to Shanifah Rieara, the MTAs chief customer officer. Running two systemswith their duplicative costsmeant we had to set a certain date, she says. But that date was continually delayed due to slow installation and technical issues with the remaining vending machines. Now, with an OMNY reader and vending machine at nearly every transit location, the MTA will say goodnight to the MetroCard. And theyll save at least $20 million in operational costs. A Design That Wouldnt Go Away The MetroCard design remained more or less the same since the ’90s. Why? Were wedded to the nostalgia and the brand, says Rieara. We had no interest in changing it. [Photo: MTA] When it was redesigned in 1997, the look of the MetroCard was novel. There were new gradient and perspective tools at the designer’s disposal. Someone at the MTA had a field day: they created a glowing yellow sunset, a reflection, and a skewed MetroCard logo, which mimicked a train. This design looked fast. Riders would have expected a frictionless swiping experience, not a constant PLEASE SWIPE AGAIN.” In contrast, the original MetroCard design from 1993 was less ambitious. It was also more honest. The gradient was pure utility: it directed the rider to swipe left. And that MetroCard logo? It floated in a vague 3D space. The design didnt mimic. It didn’t overpromise. [Photo: MTA] Transit card design shouldn’t put you to sleep. In Hong Kong, they have the Octopus card, which features a dynamic yellow, green, and blue infinity loop. Paired with a small typographic Octopus logo, the cards modernist design looks like something out of Chermayeff & Geismar & Havivs studio. Its confident. And since 1997, the cards functionality has delivered upon the designs promise with mostly reliable tap-and-go service. [Image: Octopus] One of my favorite parts of the Octopus card? It embraces being a collectible item. Riders can customize their cards with ornaments like Pokémon keychains and plastic googly eyes from the movie Minions. This level of customization creates the perception of quality serviceyou wouldn’t chuck your tricked-out card in the trash next week. David Bowie collector’s edition Metro Cards, 2018. [Photo: Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEWpress/Corbis/Getty Images] Over the years, MetroCard riders would receive special cards, but the design was a half-measure: a partial print on the back of the card. It looked like an ad. These cards featured a range of icons, from artist Barbara Kruger to baseball player Jackie Robinson to musician Olivia Rodrigo. For a plastic card that was often reissued, the MTA could’ve treated each of these heavy-hitters to a full redesign of the card. Other countries do it. [Photo: Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group/Getty Images] Londons transit card, the Oyster, will occasionally trade in its signature two-tone blue for a special design on the front of the card. Theyve celebrated the royal wedding of William and Kate, the Queens Diamond Jubilee, the 150th anniversary of the Underground, and even the 20th anniversary of the Oyster card itself, which debuted in 2003. These designs arent anything to write home about, but at least they create a shared celebratory moment for the rider. [Photo: John Phillips/UK Press/Getty Images] Looking Ahead Oysters parent company, Transport for London, licensed its scanning technology to the MTA for the OMNY. So far, Ive had a solid experience with the new card. Every Thursday afternoon, I rush downtown to my office after teaching a class at School of Visual Arts in Gramercy Park. I need to catch up with three hours of missed work and meetings, and unlike my Port Authority MetroCard nightmares, the OMNY taps without a hitch. That keeps me sane. This functional experience is reflected within OMNY’s design. That black and white card is straightforward, no b.s. It uses Neue Haas Grotesk, aligning with the utilitarian typography of the MTA’s graphics system. The inline cutaway of the letters signal road lanes and railroad tracks, the barcode highlights the card’s scanning technology. This design isn’t overly dramatic like the MetroCard of yore. [Photo: Schvaxet/Wiki Commons] But is a functional design enough for New Yorks transit card of the future? Design is culture. The comedian Kareem Rahma turns a MetroCard into the microphone for his podcast. The store OnlyNY sells MTA-licensed merch, like metal subway signs and mini-lampposts. To others, those objects are utility. To New Yorkers, they’re identity. The OMNY card is a real opportunity to intertwine culture and design. This year, the MTA proved they truly care about design: they unveiled an animated movie by designer Giorgia Lupi, titled A Data Love Letter to the Subway. Their new subway mapthe first update in 50 yearsnods to a classic design by Massimo Vignelli. And most subway stations finally have digitized schedules with slick typography. If the MTA continually updates the OMNY card, in print and digital form, it will become a cultural artifact. New York is full of designers with pride whod love to create a special edition OMNY. Champions Design could give the card attitude. Collins could celebrate civic glory. Center could give it a sports flair. These special designs would create a shared moment among New Yorkers. But, those designs need to hit at the right moment. When Zohran Mamdani takes the NYC mayoral office in January, design shouldnt sit at the bottom of his to-do list. He’s got audacious ideas. If they go well, great design will cement the experience in our minds. A free bus that runs on time? A special-edition OMNY card would floor us with a sense of New York pride.
Category:
E-Commerce
I started building Simple in 2019 with a vision that one day, a digital product could help people fix their health as effectively as a human. Five years later, we turned this vision into a company with 160M in ARR, and a team of more than 150 people across multiple countries. If you only look at the highlights, my story can look like a straight line of an entrepreneurs journey. However, getting there required me to rebuild my own thinking and habits. You see, I have ADHD, and a mind that constantly scans for what can go wrong. For years, I treated that as a bug. It only became my superpower once I learned how to direct it. That isn’t an easy journey, but these lessons helped me master my mind and turn a bold idea into a sustainable, fast-growing business. Consistency beats intensity When you see most weight-loss products, theyre usually based on the principles of intensitywhether thats a 30-day challenge or extreme dieting. They sell well, but they rarely stick. Ive tried most of these methods myself7-day water fasts, restrictive eating, vegan, keto, and much more. However hard I tried to push through, nothing worked in the long term. In Simple, we tried a different approach where consistency beats intensity. That means designing features like daily check-ins and context-aware prompts around this idea of helping users sustain effort. The same principle changed how I work. Early in my career, discipline meant 18-hour days, which led me to rock bottom. Discipline doesnt mean doing it all. It means focusing on what actually matters. It means saying no when necessary, doing the tasks that you find boring, and avoiding the temptation to fix everything at once. Your anxiety is helpful if you learn when not to listen to it When my cofounder left the company in 2021, about a year and a half after we started, I suddenly became responsible for everything at once. Frankly, it wasnt what I expected. If you have an anxious brain, you probably know this well: your mind runs endless what if scenarios. I was constantly thinking about what could go wrong, and I couldnt relax. Overtime, I realized that most of my fears had no real basis, but a few were extremely useful early warnings, so my job was to learn the difference. I wrote down everything that was bothering me, then asked myself these three questions: 1. Is this a real problem, or just me spiraling? 2. If its real, can I do something about it in the next 24 hours? 3. If yes, what is the smallest concrete action? You need to believe that it will work, regardless of how irrational it seems When we first pitched Simple, there was little evidence that an app could coach health as well as a human. Given the fact that it was prior to the AI boom, not many believed we could do it. The early version product focused on intermittent fasting. It worked, but we knew it was only one piece of the puzzle. Moving from a simple fasting tracker to a full weightloss coach (and eventually to a holistic AI health coach) required out-of-the-box decisions. If you want to innovate, many people will disagree with you, but you should still move forward. We had to redirect resources from a working funnel toward a vision that didnt yet exist in our metrics. If you dont radiate a basic conviction that things will work (even while you are brutally honest about risks), nobody will bet their career on your idea. Discipline and high standards are an ultimate form of self-love For a long time, I thought self-love meant giving myself more rest or treating myself gently. Some of that is important, but in moderation. The more honest definition of self-love I came to is this: Loving yourself is also discipline, confidence, and high expectations. Its wanting the best for yourself, and asking the maximum from yourself. When youre scaling a company fast, its easy to become the weak linkyoure sleep-deprived, which means that youre slow to make decisions. You avoid hard conversations, and you keep the wrong people in the team too long. When youre not consistent in your standards and habits, not only do you betray yourselfyou also betray your team, because youre not showing up as a leader when they need you to. Decisions that concern other people will hurt, but you still have to make them One of the hardest parts of scaling Simple was making changes to the leadership team. Some hires were clear mistakes, while others were great at an earlier stage but became a brake on the company later. Firing or moving on from such people can be emotionally painful because you invest trust and hope in them. What helps me with this is to separate the person from the role. You can value their contribution, and still accept theyre no longer the right fit. Giving them more time wont turn a bad hire into a great fit. Itll only make the situation more expensive, so rip off the band-aid, but dont forget to show your appreciation. Your company scales at the same speed you do In 2023, I realized our biggest bottleneck wasnt our market, investors, or team. It was me. I placed my attention on growth and marketing, and I struggled to see what the company really needed to improve. I vividly remember the day I realized, because it was the day Simples growth trajectory drastically changed. I cut back on experiments and focused on the product and science behind it. Within a year, we repositioned Simple from a tracking app to a weightloss coach, and our AI coach became a central part of the product. At the same time, retention improved, and so did our financial metrics. Around the same time, I wrote a phrase in my notes that I come back to often. The universe gives me exactly as much energy as I need to handle my goals. If the goals become bigger, more energy will come. And since then, Ive learned that every new stage of company growth is also an invitation to become a new version of myself.
Category:
E-Commerce
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